There are many mounting brackets that provide mounting attachment at a right angle from a surface. A particular bracket is disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,810,501 entitled “Perpendicular Edge Fastener.” The device in this patent includes a rectangular base which provides clinch-type attachment of the bracket to a metal sheet. There is, however, a great demand for mounting brackets for circuit boards, but this device is not suitable for circuit board applications. Heretofore none has been devised which may be most efficiently used as a versatile right-angle circuit board surface mount bracket. One requirement for a circuit board bracket is its ability to provide a vertical attachment face which is flush with or extends beyond the edge of the circuit board, however this desired mounting position poses several problems. First, to be efficiently used in high volume circuit board production, the mounting bracket is often required to be transported to the circuit board by automated pick-and-place equipment. Such equipment requires a centered, flat top surface so that the device can be handled by the vacuum placement arm. Secondly, the mounting bracket needs to have a planar attachment face to establish an orientation plane perpendicular to the surface of the circuit board. Finally, the circuit board bottom surface of the bracket cannot be co-extensive with the attachment face because when flush edge mounting is required, or a mounting arrangement in which the attachment face is required to extend beyond the edge of the circuit board, there is not a circuit board perimeter along the front edge of the bracket to permit the proper inspection of the surface mount solder joint. Unfortunately, no device presently exists which provides a circuit board mounting bracket with features which solve these problems.
Pertinent patent prior art of which the applicant is aware includes U.S. Pat. No. 6,643,143 issued to Stewart et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,878,856 issued to Maxwell; U.S. Pat. No. 5,044,984 issued to Mosser et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,122,064 issued to Zarreii; U.S. Pat. No. 5,090,912 issued to Zell; U.S. Pat. No. 4,921,431 issued to Garay et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,735,696 issued to Niitsu et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 6,077,093 issued to Seong et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 6,322,392 issued to Wang; and U.S. Pat. No. 6,338,653 issued to Jones et al. These patents all describe circuit board mounting hardware but none fulfills the need in the art described above.